Sitemaps & SEO

Creating a site map for your website is a very important aspect of on-site search engine optimization, by helping website crawlers (otherwise known as ’spiders”) discover your website pages, inner pages and navigation menu by following your sitemap through its inner structure.

A site map is basically a table of contents for your website, describing the different pages available and the content/topics discussed within your different sections.

A site map makes it easier for both the public to navigate through your site but also for effectively indexing your site within the search engines.

You can create a very simple site map or design a complex structured map, it’s entirely up to you.  Regardless what you decide to go with however be sure that you always use plain text links as search engine spiders have a difficult time reading Javascript.

You should also consider adding a text link on the front page of your website as well, enabling both visitors and spiders to easily locate it.

Using anchor text links will also help you when it comes to search engine optimization, and adding descriptive content rather than just a page of links will also boost your ranking.

You should also organize your site map into categories, remembering that this table of contents will be viewed by your visitors and not just search engine spiders, so focus on making sure it’s comprehensive and easy for your guests to understand and utilize effectively.

Create a Sitemap for your site:
http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/

What is PageRank?

PageRank, also known as PR, is an indicator of a number of factors.  It is commonly thought that the higher the PageRank of a website, the higher they will place in Google.  While that is mildly true to an extent, PR isn’t the only factor in how well a site ranks.

Every page on the internet has a base PageRank.  A brand new site has a PageRank, and it can pass that PageRank on to other pages, including pages on the same site.

The amount of PageRank passed to a site is mainly dependent on how many links there are on that page.  If the page has 10 links going out, then each page it links to will get more PR “juice” than they would if there were 50 outgoing links on the page.

A page’s PR increases as more pages link to it, but it’s not just about the quantity of links.  There are actually several variables that help determine a page’s PR:

1. The number of pages linking to it.
2. The PR of the pages linking to it.
3. The number of outgoing links on those pages.
4. The “quality” of those pages.
5. And other factors.

It’s not enough to simply get links to a page, but you also need to find quality pages that have good PR and don’t have a large number of outgoing links.  Additionally, it helps if the pages that link to your page are relevant, i.e. within the same niche as your page.

You should note that having a high PageRank does not automatically mean you will rank well in Google.  You will notice after some research that lower PR sites often rank better than higher PR sites, because PageRank is only one small factor among many that determine how well a page ranks.  While it’s a good thing to have a high PageRank, you shouldn’t concentrate on it.  There are plenty of factors that matter much more than PR itself.

Backlink Sources for SEO

Getting backlinks is one of the most difficult parts of SEO.  Most websites aren’t willing to hand out links to anyone that asks, especially if they are a reputable site with good PR.  You’re probably not going to be able to gain very many links as a new site, so you’ll prett much be on your own as far as building backlinks.

There are a few ways you can create your own backlinks, without having to rely on the charity of other webmasters.  You can get links from other websites without waiting for the site owner to give it to you, and you can also build your own.

Blog Comments

One way to get backlinks from high PR websites is to comment on blogs, remembering to put your URL in when you leave the comment.  Don’t put a link in the comment itself, just put the URL in where it will hyperlink your name.  You should be sure to make your name a keyword phrase rather than your own name, because the anchor text used to link to you is important.

You should know that not all backlinks from blogs will count.  Most blogs have their comment links set to “nofollow” by default.  That means the search engines won’t follow those links.  You should make sure to look for “dofollow” blogs.  There are tools you can use to find these, just search Google for “dofollow blogs” and you will find a number of resources.

Web Directories

Most directories are pretty low quality and aren’t particularly relevant to any specific topic, but there are  few exceptions.  DMOZ.org is a very popular directory that has great PR and is a very beneficial backlink to have.  It is also notoriously difficult to get into, but you shouldn’t let that keep you from submitting.  It’s free and only takes a few moments.

The Yahoo directory charges a lot of money for commercial websites to be listed, but it can be worth it if you anticipate your site being very popular and/or profitable.

Niche website directories may not have the high PR of Yahoo or DMOZ, but if they are highly related to your niche the relevancy can be especially beneficial.

Squidoo and HubPages

Squidoo and HubPages are two websites that you can use to build your own pages online for free.  You can put up simple pages in your niche and use them as a source of backlinks for your main website.  Since they have good PR and authority, you have the added benefit of the pages potentially ranking well and bringing you extra traffic.

Other Sources

There are many ways to get backlinks.  You can buy links on websites for a few dollars per month.  You can exchange links with other webmasters in your niche.  You can write articles and submit them to article directories, or offer to write articles for high PR blogs in exchange for a link.

If you’re willing to get creative, you can find sources your competitors wouldn’t think of.  That could end up giving you an edge that they don’t have, which might propell you above them in no time!